Asha Rangappa: On Nov. 9, 2016, according to the Mueller report, some redacted figure wrote to a Russian regime crony, "Putin has won." Based on the assessment of the intelligence community and the findings of Robert Mueller, President Vladimir Putin of Russia did indeed succeed in his efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump. But Mr. Putin's ultimate victory may have come on Thursday morning, during Attorney General Bill Barr's news conference.

While the document chronicles the sweep of Russia's interference in the election and provides specific examples of the Trump team's sometimes-artless interactions with Russian officials, it is silent on a key unanswered question: did those Russian efforts actually swing the outcome of the 2016 contest?

It is perhaps no surprise that Mueller's report does not attempt to answer this politically charged issue. Quantifying the impact of Russia's influence operation is extremely difficult, as well as outside the core of the special counsel's mandate. While the facts marshaled by Mueller's investigators illustrate the scope of Russia's influence operation -- which included a social-media campaign and the hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails -- none of the new revelations threaten the validity of Trump's election victory.